New Mexico youth are invited to join an exciting ACEQUIA CAREER DAY event! This gathering will include presentations by inspiring experts and leaders who work in many diverse ways to protect NM acequia waters and acequia culture and traditions – such as acequia commissioners and mayordomos, historians, documentarians and storytellers, political advocates, lawyers, artists, musicians and poets, farmers and ranchers, herbal medicine makers and food business owners, scientists, caretakers of forests and soil, and more!

After the main panel, youth participants will be able to choose which career and livelihood paths interest them, and go into small groups to ask questions, dig in deeper, and brainstorm about how they can get involved in this work now and in the future!

1. Download Zoom (free – you only need to do this once the first time you use zoom): https://zoom.us/download
2. Click or type this web address in your browser: https://zoom.us/j/92954264224
3. As the program opens, a box will pop up on your screen asking if it is okay to launch Zoom – click ‘yes’ – and then click ‘join audio conference by computer’
4. If you can see but cannot hear when you join – look in your bottom left corner for the headphone icon and click ‘join audio’

FEATURING wisdom keepers and acequia caretakers:

• Gilbert Sandoval & Juanita Revak – father/daughter duo, Mayordomo for East and West Sandoval Ditch in Jemez
• Lucia Sanchez – Commissioner, Acequia del Alcalde
• Dr. Estevan Rael-Gálvez – Director of the Manitos Project and former State Historian of New Mexico
• Levi Romero – New Mexico Poet Laureate 2020, Author and Assistant Professor in the Chicana and Chicano Studies department at UNM
• Olivia Romo – Acequia Poet and Water Rights Activist
• David Garcia – Acequia and community anthropologist, storyteller and músico
• Jeremiah Martinez – Acequia músico, songwriter, guitarist
• Don Bustos – Acequia farmer, Santa Cruz Farms
• Miguel Santistevan – Acequia teacher and farmer, Sol Feliz Farms
• Donne Gonzales – Acequia farmer, Chicoyole Farm and NMAA Los Sembradores Farm Trainer
• Aracely Chapa – PBS/NPR Broadcaster and Documentary Filmmaker, currently producing the documentary “Acequias: The Legacy Lives On
• David Benavides – Acequia lawyer,  Director of the land and water rights project for New Mexico Legal Aid
• Paula Garcia – Acequia policy advocate, Executive Director of the New Mexico Acequia Association
• Enrique Romero – Director of Legal Services for the New Mexico Acequia Association
• Margaret Garcia – Farmer and food business owner, Taos Real Foods
• Pilar Trujillo – Traditional herbal medicine remedio maker
• Olivia Chavez –  Traditional herbal medicine remedio maker
• Chavela Trujillo – Mapping Specialist for the New Mexico Acequia Association
• Marcos Valdez – District Manager of the East Rio Arriba Soil and Water Conservation District
• Clifford E. Sánchez – Natural Resources Specialist Technical Contractor with NMAA, NM Association of Conservation Districts, and Valencia Soil Water Conservation District
• Thomas Gonzales – Soil Conservationist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Hernandez Field Office
• Lily Conrad – Graduate Research Assistant with NM Water Resources Research Institute